GREELEY — A little Jewish praise word caused a lot of controversy as a Colorado church, divided over the proper spelling of ‘hallelujah,’ split up and re-formed as separate congregations.

The problem arose when the board of elders at Full Gospel Temple budgeted money for a praise banner to hang from the sanctuary ceiling bearing the word “hallelujah,” or “alleluia.” One faction insisted the word be spelled the first way, while the other wouldn’t budge from the second way. Petitions were drawn up, rallies held and late-night threats received by both sides. One man, an “alleluia” supporter, was nearly clobbered by a rock that came through his window. The rock bore a note that said, simply, “hallelujah!”

Both sides were adamant that since they had grown up with a particular spelling, theirs was correct.

“It makes a tremendous difference, when you open your eyes and see it there on the banner spelled wrong,” said a hallelujah supporter. “It’s so jarring to see it without the ‘h’ at the beginning. Nobody spells it that way anymore.”

“I was so sick about it I couldn’t sleep,” said Evelyn Haney, 57, an equally ardent ‘alleluia’ supporter who carried a sign during a recent day of picketing. “To think some people spell this wonderful word with a ‘j’ in it. It’s not something where I question their salvation, but at times you have to wonder.”

The two churches now meet in separate school auditoriums, and each has fashioned a banner to suit its own preference. Worship, says one parishioner, is “much better now.” •